Animals In PrintThe On-Line Newsletter10 July 2010 Issue

Fishing For Facts

"Study showed
that plant oils reduced the risk of a secondary heart attack by at least
twice that of fish oils! "

Introduction

People are encouraged to believe that a healthy diet is one which includes
fish. The reason being that some fish contain the types of good’ fat that
our bodies need. There is a widespread misconception amongst the general
public and health professionals that fish is the only source of these good
fats.

There are two reasons why these incorrect ideas have become so well
established

First, much has been made of the healthiness of the Mediterranean diet,
which is based on generous servings of fruits and vegetables, cereals and
olive oil and where fish is served in preference to meat or dairy products.
Mealtimes tend to be very social and this may have profound implications for
health.

Second, a number of studies have examined the effect of fish in helping to
prevent a second heart attack in people who have already had one attack and
these show some protection benefits.

Fats in the Diet
There’s a lot of confusion about fat and diet, but the truth is that our
bodies can’t function without it. Eating the right kind of fat is, however
crucial. What we don’t need are saturated fats, found mainly in meat, dairy
and animal products, but also in many
processed foods. These are strongly linked to high blood cholesterol,
hardening of the arteries, cornary heart disease, some cancers and other
degenerative diseases.
We do need unsaturated fats - especially polyunsaturated fats .

Within polyunsaturated fats are substances called essential fatty acids, or
EFAs - namely omega-6 (linoleic acid - LA) and omega-3 fats (linolenic acid
- LNA). Although olive oil is not an EFA it is another type of unsaturated
fat which has some healthy properties and it is good to include it in the
diet. EFAs - particularly the
omega-3 fats - help keep the heart healthy.

Fish is a source of EFAs, particularly omega-3 fats, but not all fish
contain them. Those that do are principally oily fish such as herring,
salmon, mackerel, sardines and fresh tuna. White fish, such as cod, haddock
and plaice, don’t and nor does tinned tuna.

However, the richest sources of omega-3 fats are not fish at all butlants.
Seed oils such as linseed (flax) and rapeseed (canola) as well as soya oil
are rich sources as are seeds and nuts themselves - particularly walnuts
(1). Green leafy vegetables are also a source

(2). Omega-3 and Heart Disease It’s been known for a long time that people
whose diet is based largely on fish and is rich in omega-3 have low rates of
heart disease.This led researchers to investigate whether giving fish to
people who had already suffered a heart attack would prevent them from
having another attack. These are ‘secondary prevention trials’ and two of
the largest are the DART and GISSI trials, which both used fish-based
omega-3 fats. They did show a reduced risk, but much less publicised was the
LYON trial, which used plant oils as a source of omega-3
fats. The results of this study showed that plant oils reduced the risk of a
secondary heart attack by at least twice that of fish oils!

DART Trial

It found that males who had been advised to eat as much as 400g oily fish
per week showed a reduction of almost 30 per cent in mortality (death) over
two years. Although there were fewer fatal heart attacks, the total number
of heart attacks wasn’t reduced. Its thought that fish oils help to
normalize heartbeat rhythms and
prevent blood from becoming too sticky and ‘clumping’

(3).Despite this apparent reduction in risk, a follow-up study 10 years
later found there were no long-term survival benefits

(4).GISSI Trial This trial looked at people on a Mediterranean diet who had
had a
heart attack and survived it. Fish oil supplements equivalent to a whopping
100g of oily fish per day were given and showed a 20 per cent reduction in
mortality

(5). LYON Trial This was another secondary prevention trial, but instead of
fish or fish oils, plant-derived omega-3 fatty acids were used.
Amazingly, "a 70 percent reduction in mortality was achieved - more than
double that ofthe fish trials! There was also a significant reduction in
coronary ‘events’ and these protective effects were found to start quickly
"

(6).Four years on, patients were still following the diet and their hearts
were still being protected

(7). Subsequent studies have confirmed the power of plant omega-3 fatty
acids in protecting the heart

(8,9). Plant Oils Better than Fish Oils,Comparing the three main trials
shows that:
• plant oils are far more effective than fish oils in reducing the chance of
cardiac death in high-risk patients; • plant oils reduce the risk of dying
from secondary heart attack by more than double that of fish oils; • plant
oils reduce the number of painful, non-fatal heart attacks; • there are
long-term survival benefits from consuming plant oils.

No Gain for Low-Risk The trials we’ve written about all looked at people who
were at
high risk of a heart attack. Because people are termed ‘low-risk’, it
doesn’t mean they will never have an attack, it simply means they are
further down the risk scale. They are those who eat low levels of saturated
fat and therefore can include vegetarians and vegans

(10,11). When researchers looked at low-risk groups they found that eating
fish had no effect on reducing their chances of dying from a heart attack

(12).Toxins in Fish. Human beings have been so successful at spreading
pollution that environmental contamination is widespread and all oceans now
contain
toxic chemicals. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are now part of most
food chains and they become more concentrated the higher up the chain you
go. Mercury, organ ophosphates, PCBs, dioxins, and radioactive pollution in
some fish, are all highly toxic to life.

Fatty foods have a tendency to ‘soak’ up toxins and so oily fish are
particularly prone to absorbing them - the toxins are actually stored.

This should make it easy to recognize that a plant based diet rich in the
proper foods discussed above is the only healthy choice for those concerned
about heart disease and maintaining a healthy diet, body and lifestyle.

Finally fishing, always presented as a fun family sport, a humane sport, is
anything but kind. Please watch this video to learn how immensely fish
suffer being part of our food chain.